


Broken Trust

by h_d



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Cheating, F/M, Infidelity, M/M, Past Drug Addiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-15
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-03-23 02:02:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3750790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h_d/pseuds/h_d
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur's fiancée Vivian finds out about his infidelity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Trust

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ArgentSleeper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentSleeper/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right, But Three Do](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1888818) by [ArgentSleeper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentSleeper/pseuds/ArgentSleeper). 



> ArgentSleeper, I hope you enjoy your remix. I was going to do something completely different, but I decided instead to explore Vivian's point of view in your excellent, sensitive fic. 
> 
> Thank you to T. for the beta and to M. for all the help.

Vivian wasn't at all happy about breaking her leg right in the middle of planning her wedding. Oh well. At least the cast would be off in time for the first bridal fitting.

But she couldn't say she was unhappy about a few days of enforced rest, especially not with Arthur meeting her every whim, even though that behaviour was unusual enough to make her slightly suspicious. When he finally had to go back to work, he insisted that Sophia spend the day with her, and he waited until she arrived before he left. 

Sophia arrived with a few of Vivian's favourite things, including a bottle of very good wine, the daft girl.

"I can't drink with my painkillers," Vivian told her. She really was in a surprising amount of pain, and the painkillers only took the edge off. She didn't like to think about how she might feel without them.

"Oh, poor Viv," Sophia said, pouting her lips. "Well, I hope you don't mind if I do."

Vivian rolled her eyes. "By all means. You can drink my share too," she said. "You'll also have to get us some lunch. There are some takeaway menus on the counter."

They started Bridesmaids, the first DVD in the stack Sophia had brought, at about 11 AM. Vivian loved this film, but she was having a lot of trouble concentrating on it through the pain in her leg and the haze of the painkillers. The credits were rolling when she awoke to the sound of Sophia's voice on the phone.

"Yes, two vegetable biryanis and some naan, please," Sophia said. "How long will that be? Yes, fine." She ended the call, then turned to Vivian.

"Honestly, the curry shop is only around the corner. It's like they don't want my business," Sophia huffed, then scrunched up her nose. "They said 30 minutes."

Vivian shrugged. She didn't mind; she wasn't really hungry, anyway. She stretched and reached for her crutch. She needed to use the loo before the food got here. 

She had just sat back down in the living room when she heard a knock on the door.

"Can you get that, Sophia? I don't want to get up again," she said.

"That can't be the food already," Sophia said, standing up and smoothing down her short skirt.

She opened the door, and Vivian turned her head to look.

It was a thin, pale man with dark hair. He wasn't the curry shop's usual delivery person, but then, she and Arthur were rarely home at this hour on a weekday. 

"Is Arthur home?" the stranger said. 

Sophia glanced at Vivian. "He's at work," she said. 

"Oh," the man said, managing to insert a great deal of disappointment into the word. "You must be his sister, then?"

Sophia laughed in disdain and astonishment. Vivian was surprised, too; she envied the man, a bit, that he had somehow managed an acquaintance with Arthur without having encountered the domineering presence of his sister Morgana. "Of course not. I'm Sophia, Vivian's friend. His sister's in the States right now, I think. Why don't you come in?"

Sophia turned and led him to the sofa, and after a brief hesitation, the man followed her into the flat. Who was he, anyway? Vivian had never seen him before, and he was staring at her now, his eyes wide as dinner plates as he took in her cast.

Sophia motioned for him to sit near Vivian, then she disappeared into the kitchen. He perched on the edge of the sofa, his hands clasped tightly together in his lap. 

He turned to her and cleared his throat. "Are you in a lot of pain?" he asked. 

"Yes, I am rather uncomfortable," she admitted. She knew it wasn't good manners to try to find out who he was right away, but she was curious. "So, how do you know Arthur?"

"Um," he said. He looked back at her.

"Oh," she said in sudden understanding, and the man looked up sharply. She knew that NA was anonymous because people would be less likely to seek help for their drug problems if they also had to fear exposure in their real lives, but she wasn't the type to betray a confidence. She looked behind him to make sure Sophia was gone, then whispered, "He's your sponsor at NA, right?"

"What? No, nothing like that," he said. He seemed genuinely taken aback at the question, and Vivian decided that he was telling the truth. He took a deep breath, then continued in a rush. "I'm Merlin. I knew that someone close to Arthur had been injured, and I came by to check on him. He and I, we're friends." 

As he spoke, he looked all around at everything in the room, but not at Vivian. His gaze landed on one of the photos that had accompanied Vivian and Arthur's official engagement announcement. It showed Vivian sitting on Arthur's lap with his face next to hers, both of them smiling into the camera. Merlin gasped audibly and looked down at his hands.

Vivian swallowed. That was a strange reaction. She didn't want to think about what it could mean, but Arthur had certainly been somewhat distant before her accident. 

"How is it that you've never met Morgana?" she asked. "She usually makes sure that she meets and interrogates all of Arthur's friends."

Merlin's eyes kept skittering all around the room. He cleared his throat again, then opened his mouth, but didn't speak. He shrugged helplessly and raised his hand to his forehead to rub it. It was obvious that he had no idea how to answer the question. It was also obvious that Merlin was guilty of something, perhaps something related to Arthur. 

Had Arthur's drug problem resurfaced? Was this man a drug dealer or someone to whom Arthur owed money? Arthur himself never looked shifty, but she had been a little concerned about his recent actions. They had attended a few counselling sessions together, as part of Arthur's recovery, and she'd been informed about the signs of relapse, such as dramatic shifts in behaviour. Arthur had never relapsed, to her knowledge, but since her accident, he'd been overly kind towards her, almost simpering, in a way he'd never been before, not even the time she'd had pneumonia. He'd looked after her, yes, but this level of care was something different. She'd tried to brush away her doubt and enjoy the attention, but now, it returned.

She chewed her lip. It didn't add up. Merlin seemed guileless, the polar opposite from someone involved in any kind of criminal enterprise. She sneaked a glance at him. His hands were knotted so tightly together that the knuckles were white, and he was blinking rapidly. She could easily imagine that he was fighting off tears. 

Her heart sank in her chest. There was at least one other thing Arthur might be keeping from her.

Sophia came into the room on her mobile. "Yes, I understand," she said in exasperation. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

Vivian raised an eyebrow at her. 

"So sorry, Viv. Something's come up at work and they need me to stop in for a few hours. Perhaps Arthur's friend can keep you company until Arthur gets home," she said.

Vivian looked at Merlin, who was staring at his hands. She didn't need a babysitter, but she did want to have a private conversation with him. "It's fine, Soph. I'll see you later," she said. 

Before Sophia left, she bent to kiss Vivian's cheek. When she opened the door, the curry shop's delivery person was just coming down the hall; she paid him and hurriedly deposited the lunches on the dining table before rushing out.

They sat in silence for a long time, until Merlin asked, "Do you need anything? I can get the food for you or...." His voice trailed off.

 _I need answers_ , Vivian thought. She decided to rephrase her first question.

"How do you know Arthur exactly, then?" she asked.

She didn't miss Merlin's quick intake of breath, nor his continued unwillingness to meet her eyes. "At the gym. We met at the gym," he said, then nodded to himself.

She knew that wasn't true; she and Arthur went to the same gym, and she'd never seen this man before. But she could play along.

"And he told you about my accident?" she said.

"No," he said, too quickly, then bit his lip. "No, I was there when he got the call. I didn't know who had been injured, just that he was very upset. He left for the hospital immediately. I was worried about him." He did meet her eyes at that last statement, looking both serious and afraid, and the depth of emotion in those dark blue eyes shocked her.

It was one thing to consider Arthur sleeping with someone else. Had he asked her permission first, she would have given it. They'd had that one adventurous night with Sophia, after all, which Vivian had enjoyed, even if Arthur hadn't. Monogamy wasn't important to her, but there was something more than sex going on here. 

Merlin clearly had feelings for Arthur. Did Arthur have feelings for him, too? It seemed likely that Merlin knew at least something of Arthur's past, to have given Merlin a reason to worry, and Vivian knew that Arthur never mentioned his history with drugs to casual acquaintances. Merlin and Arthur obviously had an emotional connection, a fact which upset her far more than a simple sexual dalliance ever would have.

And Arthur never went to the gym on Sunday mornings. He liked to sleep in. Her father had told her that it had taken far too many rings for Arthur to answer his mobile on the day of her accident. She had rolled her eyes as Olaf complained that he hoped Arthur would start behaving more responsibly once they were married. Now, she knew he had been slow to answer because he had been with Merlin.

Whether it would have made Arthur more responsible or not, their marriage wasn't going to happen. She would never be able to trust Arthur again. She deserved better. She had thought that Arthur was a better man. She barked out a short laugh that sounded like a sob.

"What is it? Are you alright?" Merlin asked, sounding panicked.

She wasn't. She wanted to be away both from Merlin and from her own thoughts, and she very much didn't want to be in the room when Arthur came home to the sight of his fiancée and his lover talking on the sofa. 

"I'm fine," she lied, retreating into the familiarity of politeness as easily as she always had, not wanting to betray any bit of her emotions to this stranger. "I'm just a bit drowsy from the pain medication. I'm going to have a nap. You can wait for Arthur here. Sophia left her DVDs, if you want to watch something. And there's takeaway on the table." 

She got up with the aid of her crutch again and made her way to the bedroom. She left the door open, though. She drew the blinds, carefully lay down, and curled on her side; she waited for the tears to fall, but they didn't come.

She knew she and Arthur didn't really love each other. Their relationship had been based on friendship and gratitude, without an ounce of romance. The sex had always been good, but she had never felt anything for Arthur beyond comfort; they knew and liked each other, and she had thought that was a good foundation to build the rest of their lives on. 

She had turned down a lot of dates in the past few years, walked away from opportunities for love, because she didn't want to ruin things with Arthur. It was much safer to marry Arthur than it was to gamble away stability on the off chance that some new partner might make her ecstatically happy. She didn't even know if there was someone else out there for her.

Well, she had left Merlin in the living room, but she definitely hadn't succeeded in running from her own thoughts. She wished she could fall asleep. 

She heard Arthur come home, heard him talking with Merlin. She would've liked to hear the details, but they kept their voices quiet, out of respect for her, she supposed. Funny that Arthur was bothering with respect now; he certainly hadn't when he began his affair. She didn't think she'd hear any sounds of kissing or anything, not while she was home, and she was right. Before very long at all, the front door quietly opened and closed.

The next thing she heard was the soft but unmistakeable sound of Arthur removing the cork from Sophia's bottle of wine. NA discouraged its members from drinking alcohol, even if they had never had alcohol problems before. Arthur hadn't given it up, but he had also never been one to drink alone or when overwhelmed with unhappiness. It worried Vivian that he was probably doing so now. It had been obvious that Merlin had been just as much in the dark about the situation as Vivian was, and she was sure he had confronted Arthur about his dishonesty.

She was just about to swing her legs over the side of the bed and go to the living room to try to talk things over with Arthur. She was angry, and their relationship was over. But she hated the thought of him turning to alcohol just because she was too upset to comfort him. There was no reason for him to be alone tonight. She could be the bigger person. She would forgive him, maybe not right now, but someday; tonight, she could find enough forgiveness in her heart to be there for him one last time. 

Then she realised that it didn't matter. There was nothing she could do. It hadn't mattered that she'd stood beside him during the most difficult moments of his life, or that she'd promised to stand beside him forever, come what may. Her help meant nothing to him. 

He wasn't hers. He never really had been, she knew now, and with that thought, the tears finally came.


End file.
